6 a large number of people died of the small-pox every year. When the physicians told William that there was no hope, his grief was heartrending. There is no hope,' he said to one of the bishops. I was the happiest man on earth, and I am the most miserable. She had no fault; none, you knew her well: but you could not know, nobody but myself could know her goodness.' The queen died, but she left her memorial behind her. Charles II. had begun to build on the banks of the Thames at Greenwich a magnificent palace on the site of an old one which had sometimes been occupied by his predecessors. When the Battle of La Hogue was fought, and hundreds of sailors came home wounded, Mary announced her intention of completing that palace, not as a residence for herself or her husband, but as a place of refuge for sailors who had been disabled in the service of their country. Greenwich Hospital is the lasting monument of the gentle queen. 9. The Liberty of the Press.- About this time a most important change was made. No one had been allowed to publish a book till it had been shown to an officer called a licenser, who might, if he thought right, stop the sale of the book altogether. In this way those who thought that the Government was doing wrong were prevented from writing books to Now an end was put to the law which forced authors to get leave from the licenser to publish their books. The result was that men became more peaceable than they had been before, because a man who thought things were being done wrong wrote say so. books or newspapers to persuade others to join in setting them straight instead of secretly forming plots to overthrow the Government. CHAPTER XXXIII. WILLIAM III. 1. The Siege of Namur.-Till the year 1695 Lewis XIV. had always been victorious. His victories had cost thousands of lives and immense sums of money, and the French people were growing poor, and were not able to find so much money to pay the soldiers as they had once done. Lewis, too, was spoiled by his good fortune. In the early part of his reign he had taken care to appoint good generals to command his armies, and good ministers to manage his affairs at home. Now he behaved very differently. He gave power to men who flattered him and were agreeable at Court, whether they were fit for their work or not. On the other hand England and Holland were both trading countries, and merchandise made them wealthy. William, too, took good care to employ men who were able and willing to work. In 1695 he laid siege to Namur. He managed the siege so skilfully that the French armies were not able to drive him off. At last the place surrendered. It was like the turn of the tide. It was the first time in this war that Lewis had lost a town. 2. The Assassination Plot.-James had not given. U up all hope. He had still some followers in England, who were called Jacobites, because his name James was Jacobus in Latin. Lewis had promised to send French soldiers into England, if the English Jacobites would first rise in insurrection against William. The English Jacobites, however, said that they would not rise unless the French soldiers were actually in England to protect them, and Lewis did not think it prudent to send his men across the sea without being quite sure that they would be helped by the Jacobites. Whilst this plan was being discussed, about forty Jacobites resolved to murder William. They knew that when he came back to Hampton Court from hunting he passed through a narrow lane, and that he was accustomed to have only twenty-five guards with him. The Jacobites resolved suddenly to spring into the lane, to shoot the guards, and then to shoot the king. Fortunately there were some amongst the plotters who did not like having anything to do with assassination, and they let the king know what had been proposed. The plotters were seized, and some of them were executed. The knowledge that there were Jacobites who intended to murder William had much the same effect as the knowledge that there were Catholics who intended to murder Elizabeth had had a century before. For a long time William had not been popular. He was not only a foreigner, but he was not cheerful or friendly in his conversation. Now all this was forgotten. He became for a time popular, because there had been an attempt to assassinate him. The greater part of the Lords and Commons eagerly signed a paper which bound them to join in an association in defence of William's Government, and which engaged them to avenge his death upon his murderers, and to support the law which gave the throne to the Princess Anne after William's death. This paper was circulated in the country, and was eagerly signed by thousands of persons, many of whom probably would not have been very ready to help William, if no one had attempted to murder him. 3. The Restoration of the Currency.-About this time the Government had to turn its attention to a very different subject. A great part of the silver money in use had been made with smooth edges, unlike the shillings and sixpences with the milled edges which we now have. The consequence was that rogues used to clip the money, that is to say, shave off small strips of silver from the edges of the coins, and then pass them on a little smaller than they were before. If this trick were attempted now, it would be found out at once, because the milled edge would be cut away. It could not be so easily found out then, but it was quite evident that the money in use was getting smaller. A man who received a shilling in payment might be pretty sure that it would not be worth more than ninepence, and it was very likely that it would not be worth more than sixpence. The result was that scarcely any one paid or received money without quarrelling about it. Those who had to pay a shilling wanted merely to give a coin called a shilling. Those who had to receive a shilling wanted to have as much as would really be worth a shilling. Persons who sold goods hardly knew what they ought to charge, and, as usually happens in such cases, they often ended by charging more than they ought. At last the Government and Parliament interfered. New milled money was coined, and given in exchange for the old clipped money. The loss was borne by the public. 4. The Peace of Ryswick. For two years there had been no more fighting. Lewis did not venture to attack William, and William was content to keep what he had gained. At last, in 1697, a peace was signed at Ryswick, where Lewis acknowledged William to be King of England, and gave up the cause of James. When William went in state to return thanks for the blessing of peace, he went to the new St. Paul's, which still lifts its lofty dome above the City of London, and which was then used for the first time for public worship. It had been slowly rising, after the plan of the great architect Sir Christopher Wren, on the site where the old cathedral had been burnt down thirty-one years before. 5. The Dismissal of the Dutch Guards.-William thought that though the war was over it would be well to keep a large part of the army together. He knew that Lewis was still ambitious, and that the French king was much more likely to keep the peace if he saw that there were many of those English soldiers who had fought at Namur ready to fight him again. The Commons did not think much of this danger. They wanted to have as little expense as possible, and they remembered too well how Cromwell had ruled England with his soldiers to |